So, Who's the Prey NowChapter 1
For Jimmy's financial support, I sold my first time behind his back.
My hands trembled as I handed him the envelope, still damp with sweat. Inside was seven thousand five hundred dollars—everything I had gotten in exchange for the one thing I had left to give.
Jimmy’s eyes reddened as he took the money. “Nessie… how many side jobs would it have taken you to save this much? I swear, I’ll treat you right.”
But when I went to visit him at the hospital, I heard laughter through the door before I even knocked.
“Damn, Jimmy! That idiot girl really did it!” a greasy male voice cackled. “She actually went out and sold herself. Listen to this—she’s bawling her eyes out in the video, moaning your name like some desperate freak.”
Another guy barked out a laugh. “Seven and a half grand? That’s it? Jimmy, even that Tibetan mastiff you used to have cost more than that!”
I stood frozen, trembling, peering through the crack in the door.
Jimmy was lounging on the hospital bed, twirling a glass of red wine in his hand—no trace of illness anywhere on his face.
“Damn, Jimmy, you’re cold. The video’s so clear, you can see every detail of her face…” someone snickered.
“She asked for it,” another chimed in. “She pissed off your girl—she had it coming.”
“By the way, Jimmy,” someone leaned in, “when are you dropping the video?”
Jimmy looked down at his phone and didn’t answer.
One of them nudged him playfully. “Don’t tell me you’re getting soft now? If it weren’t for her, Gina wouldn’t have been shipped off to the States.”
Jimmy casually set his wine glass down and said, almost offhandedly, “I’ll wait for Gina’s welcome-back party. That day just happens to be Agnes’s birthday. Perfect timing for a surprise.”
——
I stood outside the hospital room, clutching a thermal food container. Just as I reached for the doorknob, I heard a burst of laughter from inside.
"Jimmy, that move was genius! That idiot Agnes actually fell for it! Listen to her crying in the video—she keeps calling your name like it’s the end of the world!"
My hand gripped the handle so tight my fingernails dug into my palm. One snapped off, but I didn’t even notice.